Published 19 March 2020
Buckie Got It, St. Kitts and Nevis News Source
NEW SMART BINS EQUIPPED WITH SEVERAL MODERN FEATURES, SAYS GENERAL MANAGER OF SWMC
Basseterre, St. Kitts, March 19, 2020 (SKNIS): The 12,000 smart bins that are to be distributed to every household in St. Kitts over the coming months are equipped with several smart features, according to General Manager of Solid Waste Management Corporation, Keithley Phillip.
“They are smart only to the extent that they are able to capture real-time data as to whether or not your waste was collected. They are smart to the extent that… as the trucks pass by they would pick up the bins,” said Mr. Phillip, during March 18 edition of ‘Working for You”, noting that the idea of using smart bins is “all done in an effort to bring St. Kitts up to modernization as it relates to waste collection.”
Mr. Phillip said that SWMC would be able to identify if a bin was dislocated.
“When the trucks pass by and the information is picked up from the bin it says to us whether or not in real-time this bin is out of place because it would beep,” he said. And so, we can always take the bin, scan it to find out where it belongs to and who would have moved it, then we would pursue that differently.”
He noted that smart bins also allow SWMC to share information with global partners.
“So, the data is uploaded in real-time to a computerized package system and that tells us whether or not someone’s bin has been picked up. Also, it gives us data because we have to report to international bodies as to the overall collection of our waste. And so that allows us to ensure that our full waste is collected,” he said.
Mr. Phillip noted that although the bins are classified as smart bins, it is important to note that the SWMC is not tracking the contents of anyone’s garbage. They are, however, monitoring whether the garbage was collected.
Distribution of the smart bins began on Monday, March 16, 2020, in Stapleton Extension, St. Peters. According to Inita Lake, Collections Manager at the SWMC, to date sixty (60) bins have been distributed.
